


Solstices and Equinoxes.

by Phileas



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:14:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phileas/pseuds/Phileas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joly is in pain and tries to fight it with what remedies he possesses. <br/>Combeferre is worried and recalls the first time he ever set eyes on the younger man, and where the suffering plaguing his lover comes from...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solstices and Equinoxes.

**Author's Note:**

> [Written for the "Les amis on Twitter Secret Santa 2013", I got Joly, and I am playing Jehan.
> 
> Absolon is Combeferre's first name, and Selene is his sister. (Player's headcanon) ]

The bathroom light was yellow. It always had been since he moved into the flat, and he had gotten so used to it that when the bulb had stopped functioning, he had bought a yellowish bulb again.  
It was a cold morning and his face looked terrible. He felt the first tell tale signs. His cramping belly, his sweaty hands, the rising panic around his throat...  
With shaky fingers, he opened his pill bottles and swallowed them with a small mouthful of salted water. He felt like crying. He had done so well until now.  
Sighing, he pressed the bottom of his palms into his eyes sockets and bit his lip, praying for the pills to start working soon.

“Lucien...” Two warm arms embraced him from behind and his shoulders were kissed with ineffable gentleness. “Do you need anything?  
“I...” Joly slowly put his hands down and looked at Combeferre in the mirror. “Would you hold me until the pills kick in?  
“Of course. Let's lie on the bed. It'll be more comfortable than the bathroom.  
“Yeah... Ok.”

*

Joly and Combeferre had met a few years back, by the sea.  
It was summertime. Exactly on the 21st of June, the longest day of the year, lit with bonfires and filled with music.  
Combeferre had been nineteen and managed to pass his first year of medicine with nearly perfect grades, and good affectation choices. He was currently laughing at his sister trying (with fair success) to dance one of the Briton traditional dances.  
Standing on the side of the wooden floor put in the middle of the town for that very purpose, he sighed a little and looked to his left, where a young man was sitting on a bench, obviously dying to join the dancers. Combeferre smiled. :  
“Why don't you join them?”  
The stranger looked up, slightly alarmed and opened big green eyes.  
“Me? Oh... Oh no. I can't.” He said, producing a cane and taping his left leg with it. “Bad leg.  
“Oh. I'm sorry. It's just that you looked like you really wanted to dance...  
“I really do.” The stranger answered with a laugh. “But not all things are possible, and that's what makes life so exciting.” The smiled addressed to him left Combeferre blushing and his heart beating wildly.  
“Yes. Yes, you're right.” He smiled back and pushed his glasses back on his nose. “Mind if I sit with you?  
“Not at all.” The stranger moved a little over the bench to give Combeferre more sitting space. “I'm Lucien.  
“Nice to meet you. I'm... Well, you can call me Combeferre.  
“It's a pleasure, Combeferre.”

Lucien Joly had said he was eighteen and had always lived around here. He was an islander actually, from the small island that you could see in the distance, from the pier starting on the port. He had come especially for tonight music festival because the island was too small to host one of their own and he enjoyed the tunes, and watching the dancers. He had said that people from the continent were always different, but that he liked it. That he wanted to leave the island next September to start university.  
Combeferre was charmed.  
They didn't dance, but they drank a lot of dark beer. The taste of it lingered on Combeferre's tongue far into the night when the musicians had gone home and Joly and him had found refuge under a dolmen, not too far away in a small pathway under a Yew. They had eaten some berries that Joly had picked on the way.  
“I'm really good at recognising plants, you know. I want to be an herbalist.  
“It's illegal...  
“I know.” Joly had laughed. “I'll go to other countries to learn it. Look! Gooseberries.”

*

Inside their bed, Joly was sobbing gently against Combeferre's chest.  
“It hurts so much Absolon... It hurts, oh sweet abysses, it hurts!”  
Both his legs were stiff, almost trembling under the pain, and his abdomen was contorting, never finding a soothing position.  
“Do you need me to go and get you something?” Combeferre's frown was deep and concerned, his lip red from biting. “I can get some herbs from your office, I can run there and... tell me what you need. Don't we have some seaweed left?  
“Please, just stay with me... Stay with me. Please... It'll pass. Like the other times.  
“But -  
“Ferre. Please.”

The door to Joly's office remained closed for the rest of the night.

*

“We can move. We can buy a house by the sea and live there and everything would be better.”  
Joly smiled a little bit sadly at Combeferre and took his hand.  
“Oh, my love. No. Your life... Our lives are here. We can't just let it all go because I'm feeling a little pain.  
“This is not 'a little pain', Joly.” Combeferre was frowning again, looking distressed and serious. “You almost blacked out this time. It's getting worst each time-  
“But the crises are farthest every time! I can handle it.  
“Until you can't. I don't want to lose you to this, Joly.”

The younger man let out a small laugh.  
“My sweet Combeferre. My inflexible stone guardian. How Jehan is wrong when he calls me Jolllly.”  
Combeferre stared at his lover for a few seconds before laughing too and tightening his embrace a little.  
“Yeah. Such an avian word for my own personal otter.  
“I am not an otter. Have some respect.” Joly pinched his tights, but the gesture was full of affection. “Ferre... We can go to the sea from time to time, you know. Around the solstices and equinoxes. Maybe a full month, in summer!” He said longingly. “But I want to stay in Paris. I like it, here.”  
Combeferre sighed.  
He never could deny Joly anything.  
Not even from the first day.

*

The sun was starting to get upon the 22nd of June, and Joly got up with it.  
“Are you leaving already?  
“I must go, yes. I lingered too long...” He smiled cheekily at Combeferre. “You are a terrible distraction.  
“Can I walk you to the pier?” He asked hopefully.  
“Oh, I don't take to boat.” Joly answered before starting to walk down the road. Combeferre scrambled to his feet.  
“Can I go with you?”  
Joly stopped and turned to face him. He was smiling hesitantly.  
“Well, I... All right. If you'd like.”  
They walked down the path for a dozen of minutes before reaching a hidden pebble beach. Joly faltered in his steps and took Combeferre's hand.  
“Hey... I had a great time with you. I'm very glad we met.  
“Ah! Me too.” He smiled. “Will I see you again before I leave?  
“No... I don't think so.” Joly seemed just as heartbroken. “But you gave me your address in Paris. I will write and... I'll come in September. After the 21st!  
“Promise you'll write.  
“I will.”  
Joly smiled again and, shyly, kissed him on the cheek before hobbling down the beach, sliding on the pebbles with his cane.  
Combeferre watched him go, flustered and confused. When he reached the water, Joly turned around one last time and smiled very happily while waving. Combeferre waved back, and Joly entered the water, walking until the top of his head was submerged and nothing troubled the surface.

Ten minutes later, Combeferre was still standing there, wide-eyed and gaping at the deserted beach and the sea all around.

Selene was at home when he came back, reading the news.  
“Ah, here you are!” She smiled. “How was your night?  
“Uh... good.” He mumbled, blushing. His sister laughed good naturedly.  
“I bet. I saw you in great discussions with that other boy. It's good to see you enjoy yourself... Oh, look, here they say that a big group of seals had been spotted yesterday around the island! Oh, I love seals. I wish I had seen them.” she smiled at him. “Hey, wasn't your friend from the island too? Maybe he saw them.  
“Yeah, maybe...  
“Or maybe he is one!” She laughed. “A selkie!” She laughed again and drank more of her coffee.

Combeferre could only stare, frozen to the spot.  
“A selkie... How preposterous.”  
He hurried up the stairs and took great care in not slamming his bedroom door. Joly wasn't a selkie. Selkies didn't existed. He would soon receive a letter from him, and in September he would see him again. And he would ask him out.  
And selkies didn't go to university, surely.  
A selkie...

Pfffft.  
Ridiculous.


End file.
